


What You Asked For

by peoriapeoria



Series: Worlds Collide [9]
Category: due South
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-17
Updated: 2011-08-17
Packaged: 2017-10-22 17:30:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/240676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death hasn't made Bob Fraser less stubborn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What You Asked For

Bob stepped into the living world. Caroline had insisted that he check up on their son, and he'd not had the heart to explain about Tracey. She'd noticed Benton's ring in the mineshaft; she'd always been an observant woman.

"Who is she?" Caroline had asked after they'd reacquainted themselves. From the other things she said as she peppered him with questions, time had not passed for her in the Borderlands at the same rate as it had in the living lands. He'd not noticed one way or the other, but that was much as it had been for him ever since she'd died; in that Gerard hadn't changed much for him.

"Who is she?" had startled him, made him think she knew about Ellen Stern, until she'd asked "How long has he been married?"

Bob looked at the house he found himself in. Where was Benton? He peered around, hoping that no serious crime had befallen the inmates of this abode. Bob relocated, to what looked to be an office--it was disconcerting when that happened, and started to talk to his son.

Except only Tracey was there. Perhaps without the dress uniform he could avoid drawing the man's attention; he knew no reason the man should be able to see him, but he'd done it before. He turned to the shelves, seeking some sense of the man his son had--

"Must you kick? That's a kidney, not a football."

Bob turned, saw Tracey stand and reach up. He was getting a paunch; really, a farce of a wedding was bad enough without losing condition. Then the man's words hit him, and Bob looked again.

"What in Sam Blazes?" He had seen Tracey in a frock, but this-- "You're with child!" He sat suddenly. Not that he made a bad woman, healthy unlike some you saw, but like Benton he was rather a lot to be believed. Except, if he was in a family way...

"You are a woman?" Tracy didn't answer, but did rub the domed belly fondly. Now that he got a good look, he wondered just how little his son paid attention. He knew that for months Benton had believed Tracy to be a man. His boy moved slow.

Not always, that damn bankrobber. Bob turned back to his daughter-in-law. So, she was more what one would call handsome, had probably taken more sun than good for a red-head, though without a lot of freckling. He tried to figure out how far along his grandchild was, but he'd never been good at those estimations. Too many parkas, too many short women. He was an old, dead man.

Bob turned back to the Borderlands and Caroline.


End file.
